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The Philippines Shouldn't Put All Its Eggs In Just One Or Just A Few Baskets

Ever heard of the expression that you don't put your eggs in all just one basket? The idiom itself means that you rely too much on one thing instead of seeking diversification. I guess it's a problem that the Philippines has right now. Although I'm not an economist but it's not hard to see how putting all your eggs in just one basket or just a few baskets when there are a lot of eggs can be risky. If you only had one basket for everything rather than have one basket for keeping supplies of balut and the others for selling then you're bound to lose everything in one shot. If the balut vendor's basket is the only basket for putting all that delicious balut then it's risky. Let's assume that the balut vendor loses his or her basket to any unfortunate event and that was the only basket for all the balut. Would have it been safer if he or she had several baskets for all that balut? The more balut you have the more baskets you need to store them and the more baskets you need to sell them. You can't just rely on one basket to keep your inventory of balut right?

The quest for diversification

So how can the Philippines apply the principle of diversification? Let's go back to the basic principles of economics. The law of supply and demand can never be altered by anyone. The principle of supply and demand goes this way. When supply is low and demand is high then prices go high. When supply is high and demand is low then prices go low. If prices of gasoline rolled back or went up it's the world market and not the president. Unfortunately, some anti-Duterte persons have gone as far as to even say that prices of gasoline or the peso-dollar's rate increase is all President Duterte's fault and that all the gasoline prices lowering and peso-dollar's rate decrease is all Noynoy's achievements. Do they even know the two words WORLD MARKET? In other words supply and demand is never exclusive to just one country but it's the whole world market.

It's good to have a job or have a business but what do you do with all that money? There's more to that than just avoiding shady transactions such as double your money in such a short amount of time. People who hide their money in the safe at home or under the mattress are in for a huge mistake. A simple robbery at the house could make you lose all your life's savings. Everything can start with the savings account then allocating some of this money to other investments like time deposits, retail treasury bonds, unit investment treasury funds or the high risk stock market. Stocks are for high risk players who have excess cash. Other lower risk investments are advised to those who feel uncertain about stocks.

The same principle can be applied to the Philippines. Filipinos are not just classified as Tagalogs but also different groups of Filipinos depending on which province they are in. It's time to end the Tagalog imperialista mindset in exchange for a federal-parliamentary that seeks unity in diversity whenever it's possible.

Political retards vs. political diversification

It's stupid to keep saying that only six senators are left fighting for "truth, justice and democracy" because the Aquino Empire isn't fighting for those values. Why was the knockout necessary against the six Liberal Party senators? The Liberal Party has dominated the Philippines for so long from 1987 up to present. Isn't it time to give other parties the benefit of the doubt for a healthy democracy? The problem is that Aquinotards (or any retards) only one point of view without considering whether or not the opposition has something right to say.

So how is the knockout of the six LP senators a threat to democracy? It's not a threat to democracy but to Aquinocracy. No, don't even think of giving Jim Paredes, Cynthia Patay or Leila Dilemma medals as fighters of democracy because they're not. What Paredes did in EDSA made not only him but the whole Yellow Movement lose its credibility. It's not democracy when only one party is dominant and only their views are to be heard because it's not. The Paredes mindset is not respecting democracy as it seeks to view things only according to one's mindset than consider one could be wrong.

This should also be a note to Duterte supporters not to become Dutertards or to stoop down Paredes' level of idiocy. Yes, I support President Rodrigo R. Duterte but I don't approve of everything he does. I would agree with some things like Senator Richard Gordon's stand that President Duterte needs to control his emotions. I would also agree with other policies instituted by other political affiliations towards making sure the Philippines get a healthy democracy. This also means don't become Dutertards, Binaytards or any kind of retard because no candidate is perfect.

The "pambansang industriya" theory vs. foreign investments

The idea of the "pambansang industriya" is nothing more than an empty dream by a lunatic who should test his theory first on an uncharted island. The ideology or should I say IDIOTOLOGY has been practiced but has only resulted into failure. Some basic research shows how the "pambansang industry" is a failure compared to accepting foreign investments while setting rules to promote healthy competition. Good examples would include how China differed greatly between the rule of Mao and the rule of Deng or how South Korea does better than North Korea. These examples would show how the "pambansang industriya" is a failure. It's time Filipinos should know the basics of why the "pambansang industriya" is a failed idea.

Relying only on local investors in a country to provide more jobs for its job-seeking citizens doesn't work. Count the number of Filipino businessmen regardless of ethnic background vs. the number of Filipinos who need jobs to support themselves. The Philippines has 7,107 islands instead of just one huge land mass. How can just a few companies provide more job opportunities for Filipinos? The oligarchy model is a failure because it can't provide jobs for many Filipinos. If a few powerful companies can't even fill in the needs such as water and electricity of the whole archipelago with much efficiency and effectiveness then how can they expect to employ more Filipinos?

Foreign investors set in a healthy competitive environment are more beneficial to the supply and demand cycle than pampering local small businesses in the Philippines. Let me give you an illustration of how foreign investors can help Filipino businesses over the idea of "protecting" the small Filipino-owned businesses hoping to reach the "pambansang industriya" that they dream would happen. Let's think about how the Filipino businessman can benefit from foreign investors. This means there would be more service providers, suppliers and not to mention they can become your next potential customers. Just think of what could be done if businessmen will have more service providers and suppliers to help them in their quest to build their "empires". Foreign investors can be potential customers especially if they seek to use local supplies to minimize the need for import. It's more of a win-win situation in contrast to what Neri Colmenares thinks.

One could go ahead and brag about the huge amount of foreign currency remitted by OFWs but how reliable is it? Believe it or not the OFW remittance system is not going to be so reliable. Sending Filipinos away from their families just to get work is already bad enough. There are long term consequences aside from families getting torn apart. It's also that labor export policy can be disastrous. Even developed economies are subject to the tide of economic downfalls. Think about how many overseas Filipinos get laid off in the countries where they are working when something bad happens to that country. An example is like how many OFWs got laid off from the United States during former president George W. Bush's term.

Foreign investors help the Philippines not only by providing jobs but also through paying income taxes. It's already a policy that if you do business in that country then you must pay your taxes there. Foreign businesses in the Philippines are subjected to laws and regulations to balance the playing field. If they refuse to pay taxes then they can be shut down from doing their operations. There's no special treatment for Filipinos or foreigners. If there were more foreign and local businesses subjected to Filipino laws then there will be more revenues for the government. It doesn't matter whether or not the investor is Filipino or not as long as they comply with the Philippine by-laws. More taxpayers means more revenues.

Besides, how reliable can the OFW reliance program be with all of the OFW bad incidents that happen every now and then? Such incidents are like what happened with "St." Flor Contemplacion and the three blessed drug mules. It's a shame how many still believe the late Flor's innocence based on biased media over actual documentaries such as the Flor Contemplacion Story. That film should be removed not because we're in the digital age but because it's not worth carrying into the digital age. Not to mention one could think of all the abuses that foreign employers could do to any foreign workers they have and not just OFWs. Would you want to keep using OFWs exposing them to risks that's beyond the reach of the Philippine government?

Going beyond the Murican dream and pursuing various alliances and investments with other developed countries

I remembered the whole Philippines vs. China rift. Instead of looking for other ways to end the conflict it's safe to assume many Filipinos were thinking, "Don't worry America will save us!" during the whole crisis. The distance between the U.S. and the Philippines is very far. Some of them may be thinking of just siding with America instead of seeking alliances with other nations affected by China's bullying or siding with Chinese citizens who are against China's tyrannical regime. Remembering the whole incident makes me think is the Philippines putting all its eggs in the American basket when there's a Taiwanese basket, a Singaporean basket, a Vietnamese basket or other high quality baskets from its neighboring Asian countries?

Need I mention that it's time the Philippines should stop being America's lapdog instead of America's ally? While I'm not anti-American but the Philippines relies too much on America never mind that there's a lot of imported stuff out there from their neighboring Asian countries. Instead, we've got a lot of B.S. networks like ABiaS-CBN and GMA-7 who tend to select everything American just because it's American or people who overrate American culture. Worse, some people even just give in to American bullying as if it's any better than Chinese bullying. Being bullied by an American man or a Filipino man is no less dangerous than being bullied by a Chinese man or a bully of any nationality. No country should allow itself to be bullied by any country or should it bully other countries.

No country is invincible and the U.S. isn't as mighty as it used to be. One can see how the economic tide changes a lot. Who would have thought that the Bush Jr. presidency would be equivalent to putting a brainless man in the White House resulting to more than half of the country is looking for jobs. What if you had all your investments in the U.S. and they were all lost during Bush Jr.'s incompetent presidency? It would really result to a loss of money like how some people lost their money because they either just hide their money at home or invested it all in the super risky. But if investments were placed in various countries at a conservative rate then losses would have been minimized.

Besides, there are more than just American companies to seek investors from. The plan is not only to remove 60/40 but to get investors from various places. As much as I still use American products but I also use Korean products, Taiwanese products and Japanese products. The country should get nearby investors aside from just American investors. It would give a focus on both Asian and non-Asian investors in the quest for international marketing.